Southbridge, Charlton try to end impasse on water deal in time for Bay Path

Monday

Dec 9, 2013 at 8:46 PM

By Debbie LaPlaca CORRESPONDENT

CHARLTON — With the help of a professional facilitator, officials in Southbridge and Charlton were back at the table Monday to end an impasse in water talks between the two towns that could cost Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School $250,000.

In a two-hour session Monday at Bay Path, 28 officials, including state legislators, met to bring the two sides closer to a contract.

While no agreement was reached in the meeting Monday, officials aired core issues that separate the two sides. Talks are set to continue with a small contingent of the group Dec. 18 at Bay Path.

Nearly a decade of talks for Charlton to receive 500,000 gallons of water per day from Southbridge stalled earlier this year.

Construction deadlines for the $73.8 million renovation project underway at Bay Path in Charlton and the discovery of a gasoline contaminant in the school's drinking water have increased the urgency of getting the deal done.

If a guarantee for municipal water is not received by Jan. 10, Superintendent-Director John A. Lafleche said, the school will spend about $250,000 to upgrade its well system by adding a 20,000-gallon underground water tank and the filtration needed to remove the contaminant.

The state, town and school officials assembled followed direction from facilitator John G. Wofford, whom Charlton hired.

"My agreement with the town of Charlton explicitly states that I am here on an impartial basis," Mr. Wofford said. "This is not a mediation."

Mr. Wofford acknowledged the two sides have significant differences to overcome and stressed the importance of interest-based negotiations, joint problem solving and breaking barriers to promote collaboration.

Southbridge Town Manager Christopher Clark assured the group that Southbridge is committed to supplying the Charlton-based Bay Path. But, he said, his town needs assurances that the water it sends into Charlton will not stagnate from insufficient usage.

"We need turnover in the pipes. To me that is a core issue here," he said.

He was speaking from unhappy experience.

The two towns signed a temporary water agreement in 2009 for Southbridge to send 100,000 gallons of water a day into the Charlton water system for properties with wells tainted by the cancer- causing gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, known as MTBE.

Charlton allocated the water to about 120 properties along existing but dry water lines that were contaminated when an Exxon storage tank at the Massachusetts Turnpike 6 West service plaza leaked in the 1980s, causing an underground gasoline plume that migrated into the water table.

The state Department of Environmental Protection ordered ExxonMobil Corp. to upgrade and expand water infrastructure in Charlton to bring clean water to the tainted properties.

While Charlton retains ownership of its water system, it's operated by Southbridge, which sells water directly to property owners.

Mr. Clark said fewer properties than expected hooked up and Charlton is using only a portion of the 100,000 gallons per day.

"We need users to actually move the water through the pipes. Water stays in pipes only so long; if it doesn't get turned over, it turns stagnant," Mr. Clark said.

To keep the water moving on Main Street, where the line dead ends, he said, operators open a hydrant in a wasteful process known as blow off.

Although Bay Path would aid the flow by drawing an average 6,000 gallons per day during the school year, usage would drop to 2,500 gpd in summer.

Charlton officials said more residential tie-ins are imminent and noted that Bay Path is one of three schools that are in the plan to hook up once the pact is signed and a new water line is constructed.

Exxon is paying to install the line that would supply Bay Path as part of its mitigation plan for a second underground spill, in 1986 at Route 20 and North Main Street. The MTBE plume from that spill has been traveling south since and seems to have arrived at Bay Path.

The $11 million project would run about six miles of water line off Main Street, down Old Worcester Road, across Morton Station Road and up Old Muggett Hill Road to reconnect with Main Street. The loop would supply Heritage School, Charlton Middle School and Bay Path.

Mark E. Baldi of the DEP in Worcester said Exxon has taken responsibility for the plume and may help to increase residential hookups but first wants the 500,000-gpd agreement secured.

"Thanks to ExxonMobil, we are here facing the No. 1 issue for Charlton for the last 20 years. Let's try to reach a meaningful understanding as best we can," said state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre.

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